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Maybe tomorrow

I’m a procrastinator and I know I’m not alone in this practice. It’s not that I’m afraid to do things, and I suppose one could say there’s an element of fear in procrastination, but I have to convince myself I’m going to do something correctly the first time. I simply hate doing the same thing twice. So, the more I ponder doing a task, the more I change my mind about how I want to do it and the longer it takes to get it done.

For a simple example, I’ve been driving a vehicle for nearly two years, since my purchase of it, and I’ve noticed, every once in a while, a strong smell of raw gasoline while driving. I would rationalize it away noticing a gas station very near by or I would be around an older vehicle which I felt was probably emitting the odor. By the time I would reach my destination, I would forget all about the odor, as it didn’t last very long, and I was confident I had already explained it away. I knew something had to be wrong as my gas mileage was really beginning to wane away. Then the smell episodes became more frequent and the rational explanations didn’t make sense any longer. As a longtime past mechanic, I was forced to investigate the latest smell the other morning. Under the hood I found the fuel pressure regulator soaking wet in gasoline. It was an easy fix that could have produced a barbecue if I had dragged my feet any longer.

Well, as long as life continues to feel like three steps forward and two steps back, my procrastination principle will probably maintain its hold on me. The job jar is sure getting full.

One summer day a farmer sat in front of his shack, smoking a corncob pipe. Along came a stranger who asked, “How’s your cotton coming?” “Ain’t got none,” the farmer answered. “Didn’t plant none. ’Fraid of the boll weevil.” “Well,” the stranger pursued, “how’s your corn comin’?” Again the farmer responded, “Didn’t plant none. ’Fraid of the drought.” “And your potatoes?” the stranger asked. “Scairt of the tater bugs,” the farmer replied. Finally the stranger asked, “Well, what did you plant?” “Nothin’,” said the farmer. “I just playin’ it safe this year.”

A little boy was afraid of the dark. One night his mother asked him to go out to the back porch and bring her the broom. The little boy turned to his mother and said, “I don’t want to go out there, it’s dark.” The mother smiled reassuringly at her son. “You don’t have to be afraid of the dark,” she explained. “Jesus is out there. He’ll look after you and protect you.” The little boy thought about that for a minute and then went to the back door. He cracked it open and peered into the darkness. Still not wanting to leave the light, he asked, “Jesus? If you’re out there, would you hand me the broom?”

[2 Timothy 1:7] “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” It was once said of a man: “He made no mistakes; He took no wrong roads; He never fumbled the ball; He never went down ’neath the weight of a load; He simply did nothing at all.”

Fear can paralyze. Fear can control. Fear can cause us to do nothing. And when we do nothing, we fail ourselves, others, and God. When we do nothing, we sin. The Bible calls such a person a “sluggard.” Proverbs 24:30-34 “... A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest -- and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.”

What are you doing about your salvation? Nothing? How much time do you truly have before you need to be saved from your sins? If you were to die this night, would you know you’re going to heaven?